After 8 Kids I Deserve This Mommy Makeover

Here is some better pics of the swelling and the new stretch marks at day 9. I’m praying these are the old stretch marks that are gonna shrink down. I know everyone says swelling is normal. Gosh I hope this is gonna go back to the way it was day of surgery.

Well for the first five days of this thing everything was an absolute breeze. I didn’t have pain like I thought I would. Didn’t even take half the pain medication they provided. I was getting around great. My waist was so pretty and skinny. Mild swelling. I had one complaint & that was my stress over the binder. Every time I sat down it rolled up. I was told if it rolled up it could cause damage to the incisions and to make sure that didn’t happen. So for the first five days I was constantly obsessed over whether the binder was too tight or too loose or rolling up. Just absolutely anxious over possibly damaging the vertical incision. My poor doctors office. I blew them up several times lol. Even after hours! We did receive instructions as well as a video with really good descriptions on how to wear the binder but I was still constantly so afraid I was gonna mess something up because it just would not stop rolling up. Thats really the only issue I could possibly say I had the first five days. I was feeling so happy and so blessed that everything is going so well, with my new pretty tummy. I said at least 1 million times that I was just so impressed! Also let me add before I go into the negative part of this update that my breast are absolutely beautiful! The crazy thing is I didn’t even really think I wanted boobs lol I just didn’t want them to be droopy. I am slightly obsessed/in love with them!
Onto the sad part. I went to my first follow up appointment with Dr K on Wednesday. He was awesome as always and I left the appointment feeling great as always. He said everything was looking great. Which it absolutely was. At the end of the visit I was told to keep the binder off and to buy a pair of spanks. So I immediately went to Walmart on a hunt for these spank or shape up type things. As a person that has never been very big at all unless I was pregnant I have never personally worn or know anything about compression garments. That was an adventure on its own. Ended up going to three Walmart. I think we should’ve just found a mall personally. But I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. All I knew is it didn’t need to have any lines in it because from what I read I wouldn’t heal right if the compression wasn’t even. I was told that everything needed to heal at this point and it had to be very light compression. So I found what I thought I was supposed to have and I’ve been wearing them 24/7 since day five. Now mind you they are an extra large and before surgery I was a medium. But I was afraid to get anything too tight because I didn’t want to damage my incisions. On the way home I noticed that I had a large orange size lump developing above my belly button. By the time I got home I noticed that my entire waist was getting much bigger. Over the next few days I’ve watched it grow and grow and grow. To the point that the last two days I have pretty much laid in my chair afraid to move because it seems like every time I get up and move around I swell more. When I went into surgery I had about a 30 inch waist ( I think, it could have been a 29) My waist is currently measuring 41 inches. I’m also 11 pounds heavier on the scale than I was on surgery day. The stretch marks appear to be growing higher and higher up my stomach. I have contacted my doctor and I’ve spent many many many hours on the Internet and everybody says that swelling is normal. I’m just feeling very discouraged this point because I feel like the stretch marks are just as high as they were before I had the surgery. A little backstory so you guys understand how I ended up in this predicament to begin with because I’m over here having flashbacks from 28 years ago lol. With my first child I gained 70 pounds worth of water and a matter of a few days. The doctors did not realize that my ureters were kinked off and that I was not able to properly urinate. All 7 pregnancies after that my kidneys continue to do the same thing and I had to go into surgery to have nephrostomy tubes placed. Either way that first pregnancy before any of the doctors knew what was going on I swoll up so big and my skin was so tight and I literally watched it shred before my eyes. Seriously I could just sit there and watch the stretch marks grow taller and taller and taller and pop out. Every single stretch mark on my body came from that one week time during my very first pregnancy at 17 years old. That feeling is exactly how I have felt the last couple of days. I feel like it’s 28 years ago and I’m just watching the stretch marks crawl up my stomach. So I understand swelling is supposed to be a part of the process but I’m feeling very very discouraged. I’ve waited for 28 years to get the stretch marks removed. It makes me wanna cry to watch them coming back.

I’m two days out and still so impressed with the process. I really thought the pain would be worse. Now I did get the pain shot so I’m assuming that’s why this has been easier then I expected. I will say that I have to take the pain medication on time or the pain is pretty substantial, but again so much better then I thought it would be. Very tolerable as long as you take your pain medication. So much so I’ve been up on my feet every hour since I arrived home from surgery so I won’t have to worry about blood clots.
So let’s talk about the actual surgery experience as promised. I arrived at their private surgery facility and was immediately met by a very kind nurse that took all my vitals and went over everything that was going to be done that day. She also had me fill out a questionnaire for the anesthesiologist. Afterwards the doctor came in and went over what we were doing and begin marking me up. After making sure I had no more questions or concerns he left the room and said see you in surgery. Next came in the anesthesiologist. I really liked him, he was much older & extremely experienced and I felt very comfortable once I met him. I was a little bit nervous about the surgery before then. I have a svt and even though my primary care doctor had given me the clearance for surgery I was still scared. So next I was lead into the surgery suit where I was told to get on the table. There were nurses walking around putting compression systems on my legs and an IV in my arm. The next thing I know I was out. I don’t even remember counting backwards so I’m pretty sure it was something they pushed in my IV. What ever it was I’m very grateful that it was so smooth and so fast and I didn’t have time to lay there and worry. Next thing I know I woke up and it was over. I set they’re in recovery for a little while and then my husband came and met the nurse who brought me out to the car. I remember the ride home very well, unlike most of the surgeries I’ve had before so they had to be light on the meds. Normally I have this loopy hangover feeling after surgery for a few hours but I just didn’t have that this time. It was weird but very pleasant. I was nauseated but that’s really only negative thing I can say. Once I was home I had a wet spot on my binder from my drain on my side. My husband was kinda freaking out because he didn’t realize that the dressings around the drain would be that wet that fast. We called the office and spoke to them as they walked us through how to change that pad. It was cut and taped kinda to the tub so my husband just felt overwhelmed thinking he was gonna pull on the tube to much. We actually called them three times that day. The next call was because he was convinced that we did not touch the dressing over the belly button even though I explain to him we had to change it to lol. Third call was after hours. I was so impressed that they answered after hours. I mean we got the answering service but they put us on hold and transferred a straight over to the office manager within minutes. That was the last call of the day when we were a little bit confused about how to alternate the medication. I have to say after all of this I am so 100% positive I pick the best surgeon I could’ve possibly picked! Everything just went so smooth. I feel like they have been there at every moment that we have needed them and I couldn’t ask for more! When I chose to pick this doctor I was aware of a couple of negative reviews so I was worried there would be some communication issues. But there were so many good reviews I figured it wasn’t likely. Just overthinking I guess. Either way I don’t know what the heck those people are talking about because that hasn’t been my experience at all! I couldn’t ask for better communication! The day before the surgery their patient coordinator had called me to check on me and spent 30 minutes on the phone with me calming me down because I was a nervous wreck. Like I said I was getting really weird in the end because I was convinced I was gonna die because of my SVT. I’ve been told that a lot of people get that way right before surgery. I still feel like I annoy the shit out of these people and they put up with me like a champ! Dr K is a gifted surgeon but besides that he has one hell of a team to back him up. As far as my results and pictures speak for theirselves. I am beyond pleased with everything I’m staying so far! I mean my breasts are a little higher than I want them but I know they’re gonna come down. When I seen the pics of how much skin they took off of me I I got tears in my eyes. I have waited for 27 years to have this skin removed from my stomach. This is the best decision I have ever made!!!! Again I’m just so so very impressed with everything so far.